She remembers the days after Charlie\u2019s birth as \u201csurreal\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had this tiny baby in NICU, and I was having to pump colostrum into little vials and walk with my epic birth injuries and catheter from the birth ward to deliver it. It felt like science fiction, like in a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Claire was discharged after a week, she was devastated to be away from Charlie, now 8.<\/p>\n
Claire with Andrew and Charlie. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n
\u201cI hated being separated. It was absolutely horrific.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lactation specialist intervened, advocating for Claire to have a room on the ward so she could stay with her son. Two weeks later, they went home together.<\/p>\n
Throughout it all, Claire, who co-founded festival LitCrawl Wellington with Andy, kept working. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was on autopilot anyway, and it helped me feel normal and have a connection to the outside world,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt was a year later when everything hit me at once.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her sister has Hashimoto\u2019s, an autoimmune condition affecting the thyroid, and Claire suspected she did as well, but says her doctor was reluctant to test her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to really advocate for myself,\u201d she recalls. \u201cWhen I did get tested, it came back strongly positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dealing with the diagnosis and new motherhood, Claire simply couldn\u2019t continue as she was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could feel my brakes going on almost involuntarily,\u201d says Claire, who stepped away from her intense workload to finally try her hand at writing. \u201cSlowly I turned my ship around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, she is the 2026 recipient of the prestigious Lynley Dodd Children\u2019s Writers Award.<\/p>\n
Claire is a 2026 recipient of the Lynley Dodd Children\u2019s Writers Award. Photo \/ Rebecca McMillan Photography<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so out of the blue for me, such a massive surprise, I burst into tears,\u201d says Claire, who admits confidence in her new career has not come easily.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a critical inner voice, so it\u2019s a huge vote of confidence in what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her latest picture book, Cass and the Beast, is about a girl who refuses to accept the stories her town tells about a mysterious beast. Underneath the tale of bravery is a deeply personal connection to Claire\u2019s late Aunty Margaret, who died of cancer at 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never met her, but I\u2019ve always grown up with stories about brave little girls because of my aunty,\u201d she shares. \u201cShe was part of the family lore.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cass is also in part Claire. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is quiet and introverted but very fierce in her mind, and that is what I was like \u2013 a quiet child with ferocious thoughts and emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on all she has achieved and experienced, Claire hopes it will set the example for her son that it\u2019s never too late to embrace creativity and indulge your imagination.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, I didn\u2019t know many creative adults and for a long time, I didn\u2019t know how to be one,\u201d admits Claire.<\/p>\n
Now she can\u2019t picture life any other way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to write more books,\u201d she smiles. \u201cI feel now I\u2019ve started, I won\u2019t be able to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cass and the Beast (Gecko Press).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were extremely lucky I got pregnant right away after that.\u201d During her pregnancy, she and her musician…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8831,95,27518,13851,2546,16717,15316,2108,4749,9193,156,6440,1874,28559,22122,68636,20558,4188,195363,111,139,88044,69,90,64798,9831,1361,6736,6730,53632],"class_list":["post-642177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-an","tag-and","tag-asking","tag-author","tag-awardwinning","tag-becoming","tag-birth","tag-book","tag-childrens","tag-claire","tag-entertainment","tag-ever","tag-found","tag-herself","tag-ignore","tag-impossible","tag-kept","tag-living","tag-mabey","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nicu","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-premature","tag-question","tag-that","tag-was","tag-would","tag-write"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}